Making Servant Season 4 And Knock At The Cabin Simultaneously Was Like 3D Chess For M. Night Shyamalan
M. Night Shyamalan just delivered one of the most artistically audacious films he's made in years with "Knock at the Cabin," and in a new interview, he reveals that he was making the movie at the same time as he was helming one of the most artistically audacious shows on television. In an interview with Collider, Shyamalan spoke about what it was like to make the final season of his dark Apple TV+ series, "Servant," at the same time as his horror adaptation "Knock at the Cabin." It turns out, it was a little bit like playing chess (if Rupert Grint was in both chess games).
"What 'Servant' taught me was, 'Wow, there's a beauty to creating when you have a lot, a lot of things on your table,' Shyamalan shared. "Me as a human being, I don't spend as much time angsting, and I spend more time doing. And the doing makes the iteration process quicker because I'm doing it and it doesn't work, or it does work." The filmmaker's penchant for doing instead of angsting has helped him crank out multiple projects in recent years, with just two years between his superhero sequel "Glass," his trippy sci-fi tale "Old," and his latest, an apocalyptic home invasion movie based on Paul Tremblay's novel.
Shyamalan told Collider that he has more ideas in the works now, so we may be seeing new films from him roughly every other year for the next six years. It was juggling "Servant" with his latest film that made the director start strategizing his time a little differently, though. "I stopped being so precious because there was just an enormous amount of work to do on 'Servant,'" the filmmaker said. "So one floor of a building had 'Servant' and one had 'Knock at the Cabin.'"
A healthy type of multitasking
At first, I thought Shyamalan meant a metaphorical building here. After all, the man has a way with comparisons, as evidenced by a great recent interview with Yahoo (per Kevin Polowy on Twitter) in which he describes his films as "savory" and "sweet." But it turns out Shyamalan was talking about working on the films on two different levels — literally. "I'm running upstairs [to] this side and the editor would show me something here, or the composer would show me something here. And I'd say, 'This movement needs to go like that,'" the filmmaker told Collider. Both projects were made by Blinding Edge Pictures, the production company Shyamalan founded back in 1998.
"And you just go to the next question," Shyamalan continued. "It was almost like playing multiple games of chess at the same time." Whether or not Shyamalan won both games is still up for debate, as the final season of "Servant" is still unfolding, and "Knock at the Cabin" premieres this week. So far, in a response that's definitely not new for the filmmaker behind "The Village" and "Signs," opinions on the latter have been mixed. /Film's Chris Evangelista called "Knock at the Cabin" a return to form for Shyamalan, and his "most visually assured film" to date.
Regardless of the results, Shyamalan says that project multitasking worked well for him. He shared: "I found that I stayed healthier rather than retreating to my unhealthy version of myself of imposter syndrome, or being destructive, or whatever it is, ego-driven stuff, that I was just reacting to the material." Audiences will continue to see how his new strategy plays out, as Shyamalan tells Collider he already has three more movie ideas in the works.
"The Knock at the Cabin" is now in theaters.